Diversity and Human Nature: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology This course introduces students to the varieties of human experience in social life and to the differing approaches and levels of analysis used by anthropologists to explain it. Topics include: culture and race, rituals and symbolism, kinship and gender roles, social evolution, political economy, and sociolinguistics. Ethnographic examples are drawn chiefly from non-Western societies, from simple bands to great agrarian states. The ultimate aim is to enable students to think critically about the bases of their own culture and about practices and beliefs previously unanalyzed and unexamined.

Anthropological Theory This course gives an introduction to some important themes in the development of anthropological thought, primarily in the past century in anglophone and francophone traditions. It emphasizes close comparative reading of selections from influential texts by authors who have shaped recent discourse within the social sciences.

The Traveling Tonic: Geographies of Medicine, Science, and the Body Medical practice does not operate within bounded systems but moves in highly transactional and molten ways—from the circulation of classical Chinese and Indian manuscripts to transnational movements of genes, gametes, and drugs. In this seminar we draw on ethnographic examples to grasp the importance of migration in producing science. The metaphor of travel enables us to pivot from Eurocentric histories of science to disrupt what we mean by global medicine. At the same time, the figure of the tonic enables us to think about the many sorts of life (plants, distillates, vectors, etc.) that make up medicine today.

Medical Anthropology: Approaches to Affliction and Healing In this course, an introduction to medical anthropology, we will explore cultural and political-economic perspectives on health, illness, and disease. Topics covered include: (1) biocultural approaches to understanding health; (2) medical systems, including biomedicine and others; (3) the effects of poverty and inequality on health outcomes; and (4) the social construction of health and illness. Students will apply these concepts in understanding an aspect of health, illness, or healing in their own research project with an ethnographic component. An introductory course in anthropology or familiarity with medical or public health issues is recommended.

The Research Process: Ethnography and Qualitative Methods The aim of this course is to prepare the student to conduct research, to analyze and present research in a scholarly manner, and to evaluate critically the research of others. Practice and evaluation of such basic techniques as observation, participant-observation, structured and open-ended interviews, and use of documents. Introduction to various methodological and theoretical frameworks. Thesis or essay prospectus is the final product of this course. Strongly recommended for juniors. One-hour research lab required.

Everyday Life in South Asia This course offers an introduction to anthropological studies of South Asia. Relying on works of ethnography, journalism, memoir, and film, we examine people’s everyday lived experiences and mediations of globalization, religion, science, popular culture, gender, and the body in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. In taking a close and intersectional look at situations across the region (e.g., new expressions of gender and capitalism in India, narratives of religious pluralism in Pakistan, enactments of media, modernity, and sexuality in Afghanistan), the course aims to give students the opportunity to sharpen their cultural analysis skills as they glean a more complex understanding of people’s ways of living across South Asia and the diaspora.

Love, Sex, and Marriage What are the social terms for sexual agency in countries around the world? How is marriage understood through idealizations of romance as well as familial expectations of duty or status? In this course we consider how other cultures’ views on love, sex, and partnership are made legible and illegible within broader cultural, moral, and state interests. The course asks for in-depth participation, short weekly writings, and a longer final paper that each engage ethnographic works on a range of topics, from critical studies of love and globalization to queer kinmaking, rituals of the ‘lavish wedding,’ and everyday ways of hooking up and breaking up online.

The Roaring Twenties What will relationships look like at Middlebury and beyond, post-pandemic? Drawing on fiction, film, theory, and art, we will produce a collaborative exhibit on American sex and sociality in the 2020s. Our goal will be to depict the ideas and desires of Gen Zers, a generation more racially diverse, gender fluid, and well-educated than older Americans but facing higher social and economic uncertainty. What do Gen Z dreams and concerns look like in the context of #MeToo, BLM, and other movements? This course will be a place to study and understand shifts in dating, sex, solidarity, and citizenship—what those shifts are, and what they could be.

Kristin Bright

Reviews and ratings for Kristin Bright at Middlebury College.Kristin Bright teaches Cultural Anthropology, Anthropological Theory, The Traveling Tonic and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Kristin Bright good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

This course is a loose following of traditional anthropology in the sense that the textbook will give you a good understanding of academic anthropology, but in class you'll look at more in depth case studies than a broad sense of anthropology—until the midterms and finals.

I really liked this course. I thought Prof Bright was super enthusiastic about what she was teaching. It is decently lecture heavy and there is a lot of assigned readings. The exams are straight forward and she gives you study guides with the exact questions.

Professor Bright cares deeply about this class and anthropology in general, and that is very evident in her classes. Our midterm was a good mix of everything we had talked about in class and I thought the readings were interesting. Definitely a class where you get out what you put in.